NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded the component images for a self-portrait about three weeks before completing a decade of work on Mars. The rover's panoramic camera (Pancam) took the images during the interval Jan. 3, 2014, to Jan. 6, 2014 (Image left below)
A key threat to the survival of the Opportunity would be dust sticking to the rover’s solar panels and as you see (image left below) the Opportunity has collected its fair share of dust. So it means the end of the Opportunity?
Don’t worry, according to NASA, this selfie of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows effects of strong wind events that had cleaned much of the accumulated dust off the rover's solar panels, (Image right below - March 2014) resulting, according to Space, in a power boost of 70 percent when compared with power levels at the start of this year.
A key threat to the survival of the Opportunity would be dust sticking to the rover’s solar panels and as you see (image left below) the Opportunity has collected its fair share of dust. So it means the end of the Opportunity?
Don’t worry, according to NASA, this selfie of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows effects of strong wind events that had cleaned much of the accumulated dust off the rover's solar panels, (Image right below - March 2014) resulting, according to Space, in a power boost of 70 percent when compared with power levels at the start of this year.
Image left: Opportunity January 2014 - Image right: opportunity March 2014
The image below of the Opportunity (March 2014) is presented in false color to make differences in surface materials more easily visible.
Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.
Really amazing the ‘strong winds’ on Mars…
Really amazing the ‘strong winds’ on Mars…